The Boulet Brothers’ Holiday of Horrors is an exceptionally quick foray into the world of anthology horror that landed on Shudder just in time for Christmas. Coming in at just under 40 minutes, excluding its credits, what it manages to achieve with its truncated runtime is an extraordinarily fun and odd cluster of segments. Still, it stands to gain something from expanding these shorts just a hair more, giving each more time to breathe.
The Boulet Brothers’ Holiday of Horrors: Aggressively Short, But Still Fun & Festive
This foray outside the typical The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula fare is reminiscent of the best extermination segments from their show, as we see an assortment of characters subjected to gruesome deaths around the Yuletide season. And that’s about all you need to know; the fat has been trimmed significantly here, so it’s only appropriate that this review will be shorter than most. It’s exceedingly simple, with a very barebones framing device as our hosts Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet tell tales of doom around the fire (accompanied by a rotting version of David Dastmalchian, who serves as their yearly undead guest).
“Gaudete” Brings Solid Creature Makeup but Soft Story
Our opening segment, “Gaudete” feels more like a music video than anything else, with the majority of it showcasing Bonnie Aarons stalking out of the grave and around a house to the tune of the titular Christmas carol. There’s some incredible creature makeup on Aarons, whose brief time here is as impactful aesthetically as it is short.
That being said, its vampiric design hogging the spotlight leads to a short film with a story that’s not unlike a gingerbread out of the oven too soon: soft in the middle, and the slightest bit underbaked. But hey, I’m still going to eat the cookie. I don’t know what you expected. It’s a good-looking cookie.
David Dastmalchian’s High Potential Yeti Short is Delightful
The same can’t be said of what follows it, with Dastmalchian’s guest spot “Yeti or Not” being undeniably charming in spite of its plain Jane look and breakneck pacing. Though Dastmalchian’s directorial contribution is very low fidelity and isn’t as well-lit as I’d like, it’s still awfully creative as far as horror shorts go. It’s a concept that I’m confident could be expanded into a full 10 or 15 minute short, with a twist that is fantastic. It’s hard to go wrong with this anthology, thanks to what this short has to offer.
Akela Cooper Emulates the Best of Creepshow
Akela Cooper proves once more she can set the tone and set it strong with her segment “Old Acquaintance”. The longtime James Wan collaborator and screenwriter on hits like M3GAN and Malignant has cemented her directing chops quickly with this atmospheric one-off.
This is one of the only shorts that achieves that mean-spirited and dark side Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt would often splash into, which is especially impressive given how skeletal the script is. You also get a cool feature from Dragula alumni Abhora, playing this segment’s devious demon (one that feels straight out of a James Wan project).
Kate Siegel’s Christmas Surprise Steals the Show
And of course, the Boulets have saved the best for last. “Down the Chimney” by Kate Siegel is put at the end of this anthology for obvious reasons, given that it’s just shocking all around. Shockingly irreverent, shockingly gross, and also slightly shocking in terms of directing. The last time we saw Siegel in the chair was with her soberingly sad segment “Stowaway” in V/H/S/Beyond. “Down the Chimney” is not that. It’s a completely unexpected contribution of demented puppetry that would make the Robot Chicken team blush, and blush hard.
All in all, The Boulet Brothers’ Holiday of Horrors hits all the right buttons needed to make a holiday horror anthology, delivering a set of shorts that are scary, silly, and surprising. Though I wish it were longer, I also wonder if it would lose some of its cheery charm, taking more time to expand its shortest bits. I guess we’ll never know. But what I do know is that of all the horror you should be watching this holiday season, Holiday of Horrors is high on the list.
